you are not a number, but if you were, you would be 12933 posted by widdershins at 9:49 AM on July 23, 2003

Hrm. This is not 'psychiatric art', which would be either art by psychiatrists, or by psychiatric patients. This is advertising art, another beast entirely.

I'm sorry they didn't post the legendary ad for an anti-depressant that featured King Lear, suggesting that the king's problems would have been so much easier to handle if he had just been on the right medication. That one provoked quite a few letters to the editor when it ran.

Someone ought to send up the advertising in dermatology journals of the 1970's and before. Much of it was little more than soft-core pr0n (het male-oriented). You see, derm is all about skin, right? So if you're advertising a product to dermatologists, it's okay to show a model baring a lot of skin, riiiiight?posted by Slithy_Tove at 10:33 AM on July 23, 2003

Amazing stuff. Thanks, eyebeam.posted by plep at 11:18 AM on July 23, 2003

"In a world where certainties are few...no wonder Ativan is prescribed by so many caring clinicians"

wow i love stuff like this thanks so much. the first one for Thorazine is so great.posted by rollerball at 11:39 AM on July 23, 2003

Thanks for the link, eyebeam. Finding ads like these was the only fun part of doing research while I was in pharmacy school.posted by mokujin at 11:53 AM on July 23, 2003

Someone could put together a much larger exhibit of prescription drug advertising art in general, rather than just psychiatric drugs, and I think that would be fascinating too.

For instance, the Claritin TV commercials from a few years ago were surreal in their depiction of a smiling sweetness-and-light wonderland that you could inhabit by popping the allergy pill. More recently there's the Nexium commercial that's full of trenchcoated Serious People standing on rocky crags in a stony CGI wasteland as they tell you about "the purple pill" in authoritative tones, in sort of a pharmaco variation of Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire".

If this is what they think will play well on WUSA-TV in Des Moines, who knows what the hell they're putting in today's medical journals.posted by eyebeam at 11:58 AM on July 23, 2003

As far as I know, Marcel Marceau is the world's only famous mime. I actually saw him in concert about 20 years ago; I'm amazed to find out via his web site that he is still performing.posted by o2b at 3:23 PM on July 23, 2003

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